The present invention generally relates to an apparatus, a method and a computer program for determining a position based on a camera image, and in particular to a video supported navigation.
In technology, a number of concepts are known to determine a position of an object in space. Thus, there are for example navigation systems which enable a position determination based on one or several radio signals. For example, the GPS position determination system enables to determine a position by receiving and processing signals from a plurality of satellites.
Further, systems already exist, in which a position is determined based on an image recorded by a camera. Thus, DE 102 48 534 A1 describes a method for a position determination of a mobile terminal device. For position determination, the mobile terminal device of the subscriber records images or image sequences of an environment via an optical recording device, wherein the subscriber is located in this environment. The images or image sequences recorded by the recording means are transmitted to a position and navigation server together with position data and data for device setting of the mobile terminal device and the associated camera. The data and images or image sequences received there are compared to images or image sequences of an image database, wherein position data is associated to the images or image sequences of the image database consisting of exact measurement data of the area represented by the images or the image sequences. For image comparison, algorithms known from video surveillance are used.
The comparison of the recorded images to the images and/or the image sequences of the image database is executed on the basis of an image pattern comparison. Here, advantageously, algorithms known from video and image surveillance are used. For example, methods for text recognition are used, so that street names, house numbers, or names of buildings are extracted from the image information. If a match with an image stored in the image database is detected using the image pattern comparison, a position of the observer is calculated.